Fu Manchu's King of the Road is not metal. Nor would I even label it heavy. Regardless of the fuzzed out, stoner groove that the band has honed to such bubble gum perfection, Fu Manchu still tends to hold honorable mention status among most metalheads I know. Perhaps it's the sense of freedom that oozes from the music, the ideal soundtrack for a smooth and no-strings-attached getaway from the constraints and responsibilities of everyday living. Or maybe, just maybe, it is nothing more than the sense of fun evoked from the music, emanating the vibe that recording the CD was as big a blast as jamming out to it is.

To be quite blunt, King of the Road is goddamned infectious, each song brimming with at least one nugget that creeps into your head and nestles there - be it a certain riff, or a chorus, or even phrases of a few words - until escaping from your lips like a mantra. Take my younger brother as an example. A posterboy for white, middle-class hip-hop reappropriation - a "wigger," in other words - who kept singing, "So put the keys in my hand," from the opener "Hell on Wheels," and even the chorus of "Boogie Van" when he visited recently. In short, the songs are damn near perfect, favorites "Hell on Wheels," "Over the Edge," "King of the Road" and "Drive" rising to the top of the batch.

I once overheard that the band Mr. Bungle solely existed so headbangers could boast that they listened to things besides metal. Add Fu Manchu to that list, who has just crafted the most unapologetically fun album I've run across since Urge Overkill's Saturation.